Robert Scoble should be fired

and fired yesterday so I can get em into a start up.  Heh, provocative enough?

Okay, there is a larger point I’d like to make in the wake of all the current bad Robert/good Robert blog noise. 

First, as goofy as it may sound, you need more Scoble, not less. In fact, you don’t really need guys like me blabbing all over the net, it’s far more valuable to you, the start up, to hunt down these type of guys and listen. Now, stop laughing for a second, and hear me out.

The human voice you see is required, warts -n– all, in order to give big lumbering companies a voice. In addition, the good that comes from all this stuff far outweighs, in my opinion, the ‘bad.’  You, as a start up, benefit from Scoble passing you hundreds (at last count) of inside pointers, thoughts, ideas, etc, with respect to what’s going on inside the company.  You benefit from this guy’s approach. 

Here’s a little side story. I was invited to Shel and Robert’s book signings by Robert’s lovely wife.  At the signing in Redmond, what was most striking was not the number of Scoble groupies hovering around, rather the full time Microsoft employees wanting to get Robert and his Channel 9 crew into this or that product group. That translates into more data for you. More knowledge on what’s going on inside the company, more product people jumping in and blogging and speaking directly to customers/developers/you. 

You can write it off to egos and other things but the net of it is, lots of people inside Microsoft are providing more data to you as a direct result of Scoble, rants included free.

When Scoble blows a gasket about the Vista re-write report, you see it transparently, vs. the old days of corporate blather  With respect, I disagree with Nick Carr’s corporate blogging rules, to the extent that I rather see companies tell employees use common sense, then dive on some rule book. For the most part, Scoble self corrects, apologizes when he goes overboard and posts a tirade. He then goes back to adding value (until the next blow, heh..).  Again, with respect to Mr. Carr’s position, I’ll take an occasional BS, typed in all caps, then the endless dribble coming out of PR departments.  And, in a strange way, it makes Scoble slightly more credible.

I’ll be the first to admit, the ol boy can be quite the lightening rod but when the history chapter is written on this, I suspect Robert and those like him, will be viewed, overall, very favorably.  Let’s be careful out there. Civility anyone?

Comments

[Robert Scoble]

Damn, I sure hope that's not how I get a new job! :-)

[Alan Gutierrez]

One of the things that I'm learing about communication is that if you don't say what you think you are not communicating.

I've found that the best way to pursuade someone is to agree with them, a mixture of listening and demonstrating. The longer you spend listening to someone, the more they will listen to you. The longer you spend in this process, the softer your differences seem.

Yes, obvious stuff, but the deal is that sometimes, a person is barking wrong, and the time and effort to pursuade them is a waste. It has taken me time to learn this.

When I lose my cool with someone, it's because I've not recognized in advance that resolution is not going to be worth the price. Best then to say, I disagree. I don't see it. That's your vision. It's too far off waste your time and mine.

In human interaction, there is a time to be contentious. In corporate communiation is is almost ever appropriate.

Scoble is breaking new ground in being a human voice for a corporate monolith. It is natural to want to be the perfect call center operator, calm and cool, except that Robert does not have the security of anonymity. He's himself out there.

Attacks are personal.

Robert has said things that have made me irate. It is hard to remember that the influence he has is not so abolute. Those who rail against him as if he had real power, real celebrity, as if Microsoft's billions were at his command, are too caught up in this role playing game we call the blogosphere.

[Parakeet]

Are you serious? Hire him to do what? Blog? With few exceptions, Scoble simply repeats what other people say. Is that what you think startups need? Sure he's got a lot of lemmings, but it's easy enough get Scoble to give you some press.

You take Scoble, I'll be hiring actual business acumen, strategic vision, technical wizardry, and marketing expertise. At best, maybe I'll blow in Scoble's ear and get him to be the dancing bear.

[Nigel]

Awesome analysis, couldn't agree more !

[Vaibhav Domkundwar - iNods.com]

Rick, you got me with that title.

Very well written. Scoble is definitely a source of tons of good stuff, and I couldn't agree more with your analysis.

[Timothy Li]

a little too poetic for this student.

I do not understand the real intentions behind these declarations of hostility towards Robert Scoble.

I'm new, and I beg the differ - Scoble does a good job personifying his company, he delivers the obvious values in the process to both parties.

wasn't mxPlay hiring? just want to throw in an example - we do hunt for guys like Scoble.

[Comic Strip Blogger]

See my drawing about Scoble and Microsoft and Vista - on a related topic:

http://comicstripblog.com/?p=212

[Hugh MacLeod]

"I'll be hiring actual business acumen, strategic vision, technical wizardry, and marketing expertise."

Wow. No offense meant, but that sounded like a line straight out of Dilbert.

"How is your strategic vision, Fred?"
"Almost as good as my actual business acumen, Ted."

[Don Dodge]

Rick, Nice post. Most people at Microsoft love Robert Scoble. We know and respect the value he brings. Robert is one of many voices at Microsoft. But when it comes to blogs Robert is the king...at the top of the hill. Any start-up or large company would love to have Robert Scoble on their team. Hopefully he will stay at Microsoft for a long time.

[Ric]

I like Scoble - and he does a great job of humanising the Borg - but I sometimes think that he either started the job too late or has too high a hill to get over. His chances of making a substantive improvement in Microsoft's business practices seem slim, despite Robert's best efforts.

[Brian Phipps]

In tech circles, Scoble has done more to revitalize the Microsoft brand than anything out of Redmond in the last 10 years.

[Hugh MacLeod]

I concur with Phipps

[King Bastard]

Even better, we've named Scoble a bastard of the blogs: http://www.thosebastards.com